In August last year, when we went to look at the "House For Sale" where we now live, there were 3 things that got us super excited:
- the huge variety of trees and plants. Until now we have identified over 170 species, about 75% of which are (partially) edible and/or medicinal.
- a small greenhouse, in serious need of restoration - which we have since done - but containing an old vine that has now sprouted very nicely again in the shelter of the renovated greenhouse
- a root cellar, also called an earth cellar or potato cellar.

What is a root cellar

A root cellar is an underground structure used to store food such as fruits, vegetables and nuts.
The name root cellar comes from the fact that they were traditionally used to store root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and beets.

Historically, basements were vital for storing food before the advent of electricity and refrigerators.
Root cellars were the only way people in the past could store fresh produce to eat throughout the winter.

Because they are (partially) underground, they stay cooler in the summer and stored produce cannot freeze in the winter. If they are not built completely below ground level, they are covered with a thick layer of soil.

Storing vegetables in a root cellar can help keep them fresh for weeks or months longer than simply storing them in the kitchen. How long, of course, depends on the crop.

Renovation

We cleaned and renovated the root cellar, which was quite a job. The previous owners had used it as a huge garbage can. Broken bottles, car tires, a rusty gasoline mower, moldy paper, plastic....

It was a terrible mess, but the space in itself is rather nice. About 2 meters wide, 4 meters long and 2 meters high in the middle of the vaulted roof.

There was only 1 door left in it, half rotted. I restored that one and we now use it as an interior door. The outside door I made completely new.

Ready for use

There is now a large shelving unit in there, which currently only holds our stock of preserved fruit from last year, olive oil & vinegar, bottles of water and stock of glass jars.

We don't know what the climate conditions are yet. The humidity is fine now, between 85 and 90%, the temperature still a little too high. We'll see, I think that will improve now that both doors are in place.

Food Forest Garden

Read more about our Food Forest Garden on the pages What We Eat, What We Grow and Where We Grow It.

On the first page, I'll give you an overview of what we eat. After all, that determines what we want to grow, the fruits, nuts and vegetables in the garden.

Then I'll tell you what's in the garden, and finally where it is and the overall layout.

This will give you some insight into the start of the establishment of our food forest garden, the perennials and trees.

And in this blogs I tell you more about eating Raw and Wild, about Drying and preserving and about Healed by nature

Ecological footprint

Want to know your ecological footprint? 

Visit this website: https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en 

Want to reduce your ecological footprint ?

Then ask me, I will help you. For free. Or simply choose in the menu for Your Footprint (and read a bit about our simple way of living).

If you appreciate my writings and art and want to support me, you can buy me a piece of fruit here: https://ko-fi.com/jacobberghoef 

Thank you 🍏 !